Apple Pay not coming to UK's Barclays until 2016, CEO says
Customers of U.K. bank Barclays will have to wait until early 2016 to use of Apple Pay on their iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches, according to an email from the company's CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking.
"We have signed up for Apple Pay and will launch it very early in the New Year," Ashok Vaswani said in an email response to a customer complaint. "We truly value your custom and hope that you continue to bank with us particularly since we are launching this shortly."
Barclays has been a conspicuous gap in Apple Pay's U.K. coverage. The platform first launched in the region July, and has since come to most major banks there, such as Lloyds, HSBC, and Santander.
In July Barclays suggested that its support of Apple Pay was "imminent." Ultimately, though, it missed not only the U.K. launch of Apple Pay that month, but also an expanded rollout in mid-September.
The exact reason for the delay is unknown, but a bank's support of Apple Pay typically only comes after negotiations over fees and other issues. Barclays has also been attempting to promote its own wireless payment system, bPay.
"We have signed up for Apple Pay and will launch it very early in the New Year," Ashok Vaswani said in an email response to a customer complaint. "We truly value your custom and hope that you continue to bank with us particularly since we are launching this shortly."
Barclays has been a conspicuous gap in Apple Pay's U.K. coverage. The platform first launched in the region July, and has since come to most major banks there, such as Lloyds, HSBC, and Santander.
In July Barclays suggested that its support of Apple Pay was "imminent." Ultimately, though, it missed not only the U.K. launch of Apple Pay that month, but also an expanded rollout in mid-September.
The exact reason for the delay is unknown, but a bank's support of Apple Pay typically only comes after negotiations over fees and other issues. Barclays has also been attempting to promote its own wireless payment system, bPay.
Comments
Barclays have stalled on Apple Pay for months, instead they launched the abysmal product that is bPay (which they want you to purchase).
Barclays will loose customers over this (I suspect they don't really care anyway).
Well, 2016 is less than 3 months away. Barclay will eventually fall in line.
Now that vendors will be responsible for fraudulent charges if the don't upgrade their cash register terminals to support EMV credit cards in the US Apple Pay will get better support.
With the release of iOS 9, vendors will soon take advantage of the reward/loyalty cards in the new Wallet app as well, leading to more Apple Pay Support.
Incidentally, The NY Times reports that Loop Pay (important to Samsung Pay) was recently hacked.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/technology/chinese-hackers-breached-looppay-a-contributor-to-samsung-pay.html?_r=0
Time to look at other credit cards.
What Apple Pay supporting banks in the UK will they lose their customers? I love Apple Pay and use it, on average, more than once a day, but I don't think I'd get rid of a bank over a handful of months.
Barclays is pompous joke in the UK. Current account holders should migrate to another bank IMMEDIATELY.
Yes why anyone uses them is beyond me. Their customer service attitude lousy (and thats if you get someone who speaks good English). And thats my experience as a prospective business customer, I dread to think how they treat customers who they've already lured into their web